The Thousands

The French have exceptional taste, no? Not just in food, wine and electro, but in comics, too. Hell, they even have the Academy Awards of comics. And when we say comics we’re not talking the kind involving masks or capes – leave that to le Americains – but the wild, the weird, the racy and the fantastic.
 
The wild and fantastic tags definitely apply to Francis Bear, written by local Gregory Mackay (co-founder of Pure Evil and Silent Army) and commissioned by French press The Hoochie Coochie. Aesthetically, Mackay’s style recalls old childhood pals like Pooh Bear, Sooty and Sweep and Babar. And his suburban landscapes recall the staggering, page-bursting detail of Where’s Wally and Richard Scarry’s Busytown.

Every page is a blast to look at, but don’t expect to drown in whimsy. Cleverly, Mackay avoids any kind of sentimental nonsense by transposing the mundane hassles of day-to-day living onto anthropomorphic bears and dogs. So we have humdrum scenarios like a job interview, a hunt for hard rubbish and a dead car battery taken to wonderfully absurd extremes. Francis Bear is launching at The Melbourne Writer’s Festival this Saturday!